IR Blogpost 1b: Robot Soldiers in the Lime Light -popular science

War today is involving more and more technology, but so far, decisions are still all made by humans. However, BAE is working on making it possible for robots to make decisions as well. Commanders these days are "swimming in data" as the article puts it and the advantage of the robot is that it would collect and analyze the data more quickly and determine the best course of action. These robots haven't seen the battlefield yet, but have gone through disaster simulations and have proved their worth there. My question is why they havent done battlefield simulations for these robot soldiers. And whats after this? Is it going to come to the point where wars are no longer fought between people? I am honestly a bit wary about this sort of thing. I don't think the robots can still make the best decision. They lack intuition and that can be invaluable in some situations. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8495946.stm

IR Blogpost 3: Recreating the Ice Age msnbc

A Russian scientist is working to reintroduce animals like wild horses, musk oxen, and Siberian tigers to SIberia. He has a theory in which he thinks that by putting grass eating mammals in the very barron land, global warming will slow down and prevent further permafrost from melting. However, this is only a side project for this scientist because his main profession is quantum physics. In this large scale experiment, he hopes to change the landscape of Siberia, turning it from a tundra, to a rich grassland. That is wear the herbivores come into play. The normal activities of the grazing animals would change the landscape and prevent further permafrost melting.
After reading this, I wondered what the significance of permafrost was and I also wondered what gave the scientist the inspiration to do this experiment.
I think this experiment is plausible, but what's the point? Global warming is not that big a deal. The earth has gone through warming and cooling cycles since the beginning, before we were even here. I don't think this is really necessary, although it would look nicer. www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/ice_ages.html

IR Blog Post 2: NYTimes Gospel Messiah Music Review

In a recent performance in Carnegie Hall, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performed a reinterpretation of Handel's "Messiah". This traditional classical piece was "jazzed up". The intent was to create a new audience, a younger one. The performance was done by a professional symphony and high school students. The author of this music review was a bit skeptical about the idea however, and I am myself. Below is the link to a video/documentary of the "jazzy" version of the "Messiah". I wonder how successful it was...I think this version takes away from the meaning of the original classical version. Does it actually open classical doors to young people? Will it make more people interested?

unalloyed (delight)-complete

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLwgwUb0CmA&feature=related

IR Blog Post 1: NYTimes Article on The Beatles on iTunes

According to the article, today Apple and the pop culture band the Beatles were supposed to strick a deal so that Beatles music will be available on iTunes. Apple has reshaped the music industry since it opened iTunes, making downloading music much more popular, even though CDs are still a more profitable product for music companies. The Beatles music has never been available on iTunes, so this is a big deal. However, this deal has not yet been announced, so I am wondering if it will go through or will it fall apart like other attempts have? I also am curious if they are going to sell single tracks or if they are only going to allow whole albums to be sold. The article also mentioned that this could really help to educate younger listeners. I think it would. I myself listen to samples online when something new comes out and I'm sure others do too. I think younger listeners would certainly benefit from this if the deal goes through.

Online Reading

In general I don't do very much online reading. The majority of online reading I do is research based if I am curious about something.